The fact of having several domains within the 3GPP mobile system (e.g. Circuit-Switched, Packet-Switched, IP
Multimedia Subsystem) and access technologies (e.g. GERAN, UTRAN and WLAN) introduces a wide distribution of
data associated with the user. Further, the new functions both in terminals and networks mean that the data related to users, services and user equipment will be increased greatly. This causes difficulties for users, subscribers, network operators and value added service providers to create, access and manage the user-related data located in different entities.

The objective of specifying the 3GPP Generic User Profile is to provide a conceptual description to enable harmonized usage of the user-related information located in different entities. Technically the 3GPP Generic User Profile provides an architecture, data description and interface with mechanisms to handle the data.